Vehicle manufacturers are equipping many of their vehicle infotainment systems with dashboard mounted display devices. Some of them have pressure-sensitive display, while others do not.
With the convergence of consumer and automotive environments, vehicle manufacturers are trying to incorporate consumer-related applications into their vehicles. These applications are much like the applications designed for a smart phone that rely on capacitive touch screen and sensors embedded in the phone to interact with the applications.
A problem with prior art infotainment systems is that the display devices used with them might not be touch sensitive. Displays which are touch sensitive may not have capacitive touch functionality. Moreover, a dashboard-mounted display might be out of reach from the driver's seat, preventing a driver from interacting with the display by touch.
Some vehicles that have infotainment systems might not have the sensors built in the vehicle required for the applications to work. Vehicles that have already been shipped and not designed for these applications cannot be retrofitted easily or cost-effectively because they would need to add the sensors and/or touch screen input devices.
An apparatus that can overcome the shortcomings of existing infotainment systems would be an improvement over the prior art.